


Comfy and Cozy Are We

by TongueTiedRaven



Series: 12 Days of Prompts [3]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Christmas Presents, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Izumo POV, Knitting, Light-Hearted, Other, Paku is a good friend, Pre-Relationship, Sweaters, all the exwires are in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28061682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TongueTiedRaven/pseuds/TongueTiedRaven
Summary: “Can…” Shiemi swallowed and Izumo watched her hands fist awkwardly at her side before she was suddenly bowing. “Can you teach me? Please!”Izumo glanced around the mostly empty cafeteria and saw that, yep, three people were now staring at them thanks to Shiemi’s exuberant outburst. God, the girl was so effortlessly embarrassing. Did she practice to be like that or was it natural? Surely there was some work involved because no one else just did things like this.“Teach what?” She was already wearing the uniform and it showed off all her enviable curves. Not that Izumo was jealous and not that she had looked. So there didn’t seem to be anything she needed taught.“Knitting.” Shiemi murmured, her green eyes wide. “Please.”Izumo flushed an immediate and embarrassingly bright pink. “What?!” She sputtered and glanced around frantically. No one was paying attention to them anymore,thank Inari. She glared back at Shiemi. “What makes you think I know how to knit?”Izumo, of course, did know how to knit and had let exactly three other people know that fact.
Relationships: Kamiki Izumo & Moriyama Shiemi, Kamiki Izumo/Moriyama Shiemi
Series: 12 Days of Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047784
Comments: 12
Kudos: 19





	Comfy and Cozy Are We

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 prompt: Sweaters

Izumo could not believe she was in this stupid outfit. It was so obvious. Her hair was _purple_. The hat wasn’t going to do anything to hide it.

“This is dumb.” She muttered petulantly. Paku smiled softly.

“You know,” She hummed in the annoying way that meant she was about to say something that would make Izumo upset, “I told you to just ask them their sizes. _You’re_ the one who wants to be all secretive.”

Izumo repressed the urge to stick her tongue out at her best friend and simply flipped her pigtail over her shoulder instead. If it happened to hit Paku, well, that was just a coincidence. 

“Whatever, just keep a lookout, okay. Doing this is bad enough. If anyone else-”

Paku pat her arm. “I know. I’ll keep watch and cough twice if anyone comes up.” She smiled, perfect teeth showing for a second. “Go get ‘em.”

Izumo slipped into the room silently and tip-toed towards the front where Ryuuji, Renzou, Konekomaru, and Rin were all gathered in a clump around Yukio’s desk. Shiemi was at the black board and that would be a problem for later.

No one moved so they likely didn’t hear her bare-foot approach. She exhaled halfway through the classroom and held her breath. She tugged her hand free, item clutched tightly in her fist, and shuffled closer. No sound, no breathing, she was silent as an assassin. She extended her hands towards Ryuuji, he was closest and -damn his height- just a little awkward. The angle was not convenient but if she stretched-

“Polka brow?” Rin piped suddenly, tail lifting and head tilting. The irritating halfling smiled, fangs poking over his lips as his eyes went squinty. “Yay! The whole gang is here! Ryuuji said you-”

Renzou cut through what was probably going to be a long and excited ramble. “What’s that?” He pointed towards the fabric measuring tape in her hands. She sprang away from Ryuuji as he turned towards her, curious eyebrow raised. Damn it! She hadn’t gotten a single one.

“That’s a tape measure.” Konekomaru observed unhelpfully. Why did he know what it was?

“Izumo!” Paku, wonderful, loyal friend that she was, called from the hallway. “Come along, we’ll be late!”

Izumo rolled her eyes at her friends and fled the room in horror. The boys shrugged it off but Izumo wasn’t around to see Shiemi’s curious gaze.

* * *

It really shouldn’t have surprised her that the short blonde put the pieces together. Izumo failed twice more to get any measurements (she needed those measurements and she was running out of time, damn it) when Shiemi approached her.

“Miss Kamiki?”

It had amused her when she’d used Shiemi as a glorified servant. Now that they were proper friends the overly formal greeting made her want to bang her head on the nearest hard surface. 

“Izumo, Shiemi.” 

The blonde flushed and lowered her green eyes. “Izumo.” She murmured. She smiled softly and continued. “I, uh, brought you something?”

“What?” She muttered back. She was tired and she wasn’t going to have time to make _anything_ at this rate. She’d already bought so much yarn.

Shiemi set a piece of notebook paper in front of her and took two quick steps back. She clasped her hands nervously in front of her and rocked back and forth a few times until Izumo looked down at the paper.

Goddess Inari! It was measurements for _each_ of the boys! She’d even included herself and Paku!

Even Shura was on the list.

“How did you get these?” Izumo demanded, forgetting for a moment that Shiemi shouldn’t know. 

“I told them I needed them for potion making.”

Izumo blinked twice and, nope. That still didn’t make any sort of sense. “What?”

Shiemi fidgeted. “I told them that potion potency varied depending on sizes and asked them for theirs. They believed me and handed them over.”

Izumo clutched the sheet to her chest because a) she could get started on the sweaters now, and b) she _had_ bought enough yarn for each of them.

“Can… Can I ask a favor?”

Izumo folded the paper up neatly and smoothed her expression out to something vaguely annoyed. She’d add extra flowers to Shiemi’s design to thank her for this. It would have to say what Izumo couldn’t quite manage.

“Yeah?”

“Can…” Shiemi swallowed and Izumo watched her hands fist awkwardly at her side before she was suddenly bowing. “Can you teach me? Please!”

Izumo glanced around the mostly empty cafeteria and saw that, yep, three people were now staring at them thanks to Shiemi’s exuberant outburst. God, the girl was so effortlessly embarrassing. Did she practice to be like that or was it natural? Surely there was some work involved because no one else just did things like this. 

“Teach what?” She was already wearing the uniform and it showed off all her enviable curves. Not that Izumo was jealous. And she was passing her classes. She could already summon so there didn’t really seem to be anything she needed taught. 

“Knitting.” Shiemi murmured, her green eyes wide. “Please.”

Izumo flushed an immediate and embarrassingly bright pink. “What?!” She sputtered and glanced around frantically. No one was paying attention to them anymore, _thank Inari._ She glared back at Shiemi. “What makes you think _I_ know how to knit?”

Shiemi fidgeted, again. “Well… The measurements are for sweaters, aren’t they?” She motioned towards Izumo’s hair. “I’ve seen you use knitting needles to hold your hair in a bun.”

“Knitting needles? That’s ridiculous. They’re hair sticks.” That was believable. 

Shiemi shook her head. “No. My grandmother used to knit. I know what the needles look like and they’ve got knobs on the end.”

Izumo crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the table. “What of it.”

“Can you teach me? I’ve always wanted to know how but grandma… she didn’t get the chance to show me how.”

That was probably the only thing that could get Izumo to nod her head. (It wasn’t but she liked to pretend it was.) “Fine. Tomorrow after school. Don’t be late.”

Shiemi beamed like she’d just found a new flower. “Oh _thank_ you!” She gushed, her eyes wide and excited. 

Izumo stood up abruptly and gathered her items. “Whatever. Just… don’t tell anyone and don’t be late.” She left the cafeteria without looking back and told herself it was because she had a lot of knitting to do before the holiday.

She locked herself in her room for the rest of the day and worked like a woman possessed. By the time she crashed into her bed she’d finished the back panel and half a sleeve of Shiemi’s sweater. She’d worked a small flowering vine into the pattern and she was certain it was going to be beautiful and delicate. Perfect for the flower obsessed tamer.

She worked on Rin’s sweater during her lunch and snuck off to the girls dormitory because Rin was too scared to be caught over there. (Rumor had it that Yukio had caught him heading that way once and shot him, but Izumo knew that Rin just thought her and Shura would kill him. He was right.)

She managed most of his left sleeve by the point it was time for Shiemi’s first lesson. It was the same shade of blue as the shirt he’d loaned her so many months ago. Not that he would probably notice and she’d _certainly_ never admit that. She was stitching a border of knives, whisks, and bowls around the collar that she hoped he’d like.

“Hi, Shiemi!” Paku called with a friendly wave. Her friend was sitting in the chair next to her, legs curled up at her side and a sketchbook open in her lap. Izumo could spot a few new dress ideas and Izumo was particularly taken with the bottom one. 

She risked a quick look at the door and saw Shiemi, in a kimono because why not, with her hair in a ponytail. The tamer waved like they hadn’t just seen each other and bounced into the room with a silly smile. She had a bug stuffed with way too much yarn. 

“Hi, Izumo, Paku.” She bowed politely and Izumo pat the cushion next to herself. 

“Whatever. Just sit down.” 

Shiemi sat and pulled out a natural looking yarn that was a rich green and would be a _pain_ to learn with. 

“That’s great, but no.” Izumo took the yarn from her hand and put it back in the bag. She pulled out a soft purple yarn, tightly spun, and handed it to Shiemi instead. “This is better for learning. Loose yarns like that are annoying.”

Shiemi blushed and averted her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Izumo rolled her eyes. “Don’t apologize. Grab your needles.” She waited for Shiemi to pick them up and showed her the proper way to hold them. Shiemi followed her instructions and adjusted her grip. 

“Okay, to cast on we loop the yarn like this.” She demonstrated the proper twist and loop with her wrist and passed the yarn to Shiemi. The blonde proceeded to knot the yarn with exactly two twists and Izumo had _no_ idea how she managed it. She had watched the entire proceeding and didn’t catch it. She fiddled with the yarn until it was untangled and showed her again.

It took ten tries for Shiemi to get five stitches on her needle and Izumo was torn between shrieking in annoyance and sobbing in joy. 

Shiemi added another stitch by herself and Izumo nodded. She kept her expression even by some miracle and motioned for Shiemi to continue. 

“Twenty five for a simple scarf.” She offered. 

Shiemi nodded, determination on her face, and set to putting more stitches on her needles. Izumo managed to finish another row of Rin’s sleeve before she finished with the twenty five stitches. 

“Great. Now we learn how to knit.” She kept her voice steady and didn’t show how much she wanted to snatch the needles from Shiemi and straighten the sloppy stitches. Those would look awful and wobbly but Izumo needed to move on with this lesson.

She adjusted Shiemi’s grip and showed her the proper way to wind the yarn around her fingers. She didn’t think about how she’d done this with Tsukumo and how her tiny fingers had been just as clumsy.

“Okay, now poke the needle through the loop like this.” She demonstrated on her own needles. Shiemi nodded, eyes wide and a little alarmed. 

Shiemi started to poke her needle forward and Izumo barely caught her stitch before she dropped it. 

“No.” She guided Shiemi’s needles through the motions for three stitches. Shiemi’s hands shook a little but she got it by the fifth one.

Izumo turned her attention back to her own stitches and finished three more rows before Shiemi reached the end of her own. The tamer stared at her hands in alarm and Izumo wanted to snicker. She guided Shiemi's hand through turning her needles and showed her how to tighten the stitches.

Keeping an eye on her progress, Izumo finished her sleeve and Shiemi managed three rows. She had her tongue poked slightly out of her mouth in concentration and it was annoyingly cute. She hadn’t seen Shiemi poke her tongue out before but it was such a Shiemi thing to do.

Paku was sketching as they worked, her pencil scratches combining with the rhythmic clicking of their needles. Izumo felt like she should break the silence but she didn’t necessarily want to start Shiemi talking. The blonde would start blabbering about how grateful she was like Izumo was doing her the greatest of favors just by talking to her. 

Izumo managed to finish Rin’s other sleeve by the end of the night and Shiemi had managed to drop eight stitches, skip three, and make every other row a different tightness. Izumo fixed what she could and figured that if everything else failed, you could just tuck the ends of this future scarf in your jacket. 

Somehow, stupidly, it didn’t occur to her that Shiemi would be back. Paku was out on a date - because she was obnoxiously popular - so it was just them by the common room fire. Shiemi was chattier than she’d been the first night and managed to only drop a few stitches. Izumo spoke as little as she could but that was fine with Shiemi who was used to carrying on conversations with plants that didn’t talk back. Though, with her temp-taint, she probably carried them with plants that did talk back now.

Whatever. 

Izumo listened to her friend yammer and finished the front of Rin’s sweater. She finished the back the next night, Shiemi suggested a christmas movie for that night, and before she was quite sure what happened, a week had past and Izumo had made two sweaters. It was tough because she had to work on Shiemi’s sneakily since her friend was now always around during her evening knitting time.

She came up with a design for Ryuuji that had her bursting into giggles sporadically during the day and she couldn’t stop smiling like a loon as she stitched in the hidden gorilla. She picked a romantic comedy for their knitting time and helped Shiemi re-add a few stitches she had lost at some point.

“So,” Shiemi asked at the end of the second week. “Why don’t you want anyone knowing you can knit? You’re really good at it!” 

Izumo’s mouth popped open for a defensive and rude retort only to notice how wide and sincere Shiemi’s dang eyes were. The tamer always gave too much away with her eyes. Izumo suspected she didn’t have a secretive bone in her entire body. She was going to be played horribly because of that. Some person was going to come by and peg her as an easy mark and they were going to break her heart.

Izumo decided, as she watched the sparkle of curiosity and hope in her friend’s green eyes, that she’d break that future person’s kneecaps. She’d get Rin and Yukio to help her. 

“Stop making a big deal out of it. It’s just knitting.” She shrugged dismissively and worked on the front of Ryuuji’s future sweater. Goddess, she hoped he didn’t notice the gorilla right away. She wanted him to be wearing it confidently when she lowered that particular bomb and he looked down to notice it for the first time. 

“No, it’s art!” Shiemi insisted, dropping three stitches. Izumo caught them before they could get too far and put them back on her needle. “And you’re _so_ talented!”

Izumo didn’t blush and if it looked like she did it was just the lighting of the room. 

“God, you’re embarrassing. It’s just yarn.” She shrugged again for all the good it was going to do her. “I’ve been doing it for a long time. You’ll get there eventually.” Probably. She snuck a glance at Shiemi’s needles and decided to adjust that probably to a ‘likely not.’

Shiemi focused back on her needles and her tongue poked out again. 

She finished Ryuuji’s sweater and chose a warm green for Konekomaru. She stitched little cats around his sleeves and collar and included a pocket for him to hide the cat toy she knew he carried. He was, besides Paku, the only one who knew they shared a love of cats. 

She made a simple black sweater for Yukio because she knew he’d enjoy the secretly emo look. It would also hide any stains he got on the job.

Shiemi’s scarf never seemed to come along quite as quickly as it should. She got better and quicker, but it seemed like it was never any longer by the next night. She knew the tamer was working during her lunch breaks so it didn’t make sense. 

Renzou was her final design and it took her a little too long to figure out what to make. She’d considered a spider web design but it felt a little too mean spirited and that just went to show how much this _ridiculous_ group of people had gotten to her because she never used to have soft thoughts like that. 

She’d considered red because it would be funny to see how much it clashed with his hair but finally she settled on a soft pink with a kraken on the chest and “you've got to be squidding me” written around it. She found it entirely too dorky but she knew he’d find it hilarious. Plus, any time she could remind him of working retail at Tsubaki’s _stupid_ squid stand was a win. He’d put his foot in his mouth so many times that week.

By the grace of Inari, Izumo managed to finish the final stupid stitches on Renzou’s sweater the day of their group Christmas party. She wrapped everything up and rushed to the party with a few minutes to spare. The rest of the gang was already there, cheap antlers on their heads and tinsel hanging from everyone’s shirts and hair. She suspected Shiemi was responsible.

Rin promptly stuck a pair of antlers in her hair and dragged her into the room with everyone else. Then, overeager puppy that he was, he insisted they start with the presents before food or games.

Izumo had hoped they could do the presents last so she could ditch _immediately_ after and not have to deal with any potential embarrassment. She did good work but knitting was kind of an elderly woman thing and if they teased her she’d have to kill them and that was the opposite of Christmas spirit.

Paku, being an _utter_ traitor, passed Izumo’s presents out first. Izumo buried her face in her scarf without making it obvious that she was hiding and watched all her friends tear into the wrapping paper like the animals they were. 

Rin immediately tugged his sweater on and pranced around the room proudly. Renzou fell over laughing, Konekomaru gushed over the cats and the secret pocket while Ryuuji admired the stitching until he noticed the gorilla. His face went through a hilarious array of emotions before settling on amusement. Yukio tugged Rin back down but he had a soft smile on his face as he ran his hands over his own sweater.

Shiemi was holding her sweater up and didn’t move. Her mouth was open in a tiny ‘o’ of surprise and Izumo swore she could see actual stars in the tamer’s green eyes. 

Izumo blushed and burrowed further in her own scarf. 

“Izumo,” Sheimi gushed suddenly, “this is so _beautiful!_ ” How did you do these stitches?!”

Izumo shrugged and fiddled with some discarded wrapping paper. “It’s just a different stitch. I can show you.”

“Here!” Rin cheered, smile huge as he passed her a present. “You should open one since you bought us such cool stuff!”

“Made, Rin. She hand made those.” Ryuuji corrected. Rin’s eyes went wide and Izumo couldn’t decide if she wanted to smack him or Ryuuji more.

She tugged open the package instead. It was a floral paper so it was probably from Shiemi-

It was a scarf. A scarf made of a natural green yarn that would have been a pain to work with. It was the yarn that Shiemi had wanted to start with that Izumo had told her no on.

Her mouth was hanging open and she couldn’t make it shut. The stitches were a little uneven and there was a dropped stitch she’d have to anchor but it was beautiful and soft and Shiemi had made it for her.

Paku, angel that she was, made a loud point of passing out other presents while Izumo gaped at her present and tried to stop her eyes from tearing up. Tsukumo had gifted her first scarf to Izumo as well but she’d lost it in the chaos with the Illuminati and the shooting. 

She couldn’t believe Shiemi had made her this. Had she done it during her lunch breaks?

Izumo pulled the scarf around her neck off and dropped it to the side. It was a dumb thing she’d made a few years ago and it didn’t matter now. She gently wound Shiemi’s scarf around her neck and it was every bit as soft and warm as it had looked. It felt like one of Shiemi’s hugs.

Izumo lifted her head and found Shiemi’s eyes with her own. She offered her a small smile that was a little shy, and a little wet. Shiemi beamed back at her and kept right on smiling as she opened her other presents. 

Izumo watched her friends, clothed in her sweaters, laughing as they tossed balls of wrapping paper at each other, and let herself feel happy as they celebrated another year. She snuggled into her new scarf and decided she couldn’t wait to teach Shiemi the other stitches. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Sleigh Ride, which happens to be one of my favorite Christmas songs to belt.
> 
> This was my first Izumo pov piece and I had a lot of fun. I am so writing these two another story <3
> 
> Also, this is my twentieth work for Blue Exorcist!!!


End file.
